“Sleight of Hand” and Unprincipled Politicians

Written:Written May 25 (June 7), 1917Published:Published June 9 (May 27), 1917 inPravdaNo. 67.

      Published according to the newspaper text.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1964,

      Moscow,Volume 24,

      pages527-528.Translated:Isaacs BernardTranscription\Markup:B. BagginsandD. WaltersPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      1999

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

Theexpression “sleight of hand” has been taken from the
      editorial in today’sDyelo Naroda.This newspaper of
      the “Socialist-Revolutionaries”, to which Kerensky and Chernov
      are contributors, exposes the tricks of theFrenchspokesmen of “tamed socialism”, saying:

“Theseare old tricks, a very old sleight of hand. which in
      our country
	have been repeatedly and unsuccessfully practised by
      Mr. Plekhanov without deceiving anybody....”

“Theseare old tricks, a very old sleight of hand. which in
      our country
	have been repeatedly and unsuccessfully practised by
      Mr. Plekhanov without deceiving anybody....”

Areyou sure they were practised only by Plekhanov, my dear
      sirs?

Areyou not going to the elections in a bloc withthis
      veryPlekhanov’sYedinstvo?Are you not helping it
      to get in, are you not saving it?

Itwas in your paper (No. 44 for May 9) that S. Mstislavsky
      wrote of Plekhanov:

“Whena recent leader of Russian Social-Democracy lends his band
      to such counter-revolutionary attacks [as those ofRusskaya
      VolyaandNovoye Vremya], then it is with,
      profound regret and sincere sorrow that we are compelled to
      recognise this fact, since we never really imagined that the
      degeneration of the International had gone so far.”

“Whena recent leader of Russian Social-Democracy lends his band
      to such counter-revolutionary attacks [as those ofRusskaya
      VolyaandNovoye Vremya], then it is with,
      profound regret and sincere sorrow that we are compelled to
      recognise this fact, since we never really imagined that the
      degeneration of the International had gone so far.”

Wewould add: and the degeneration of the
      Socialist-Revolutionaries who have joined forces withthis
      very “Yedinstvo”.

Andin an unsigned, i.e., editorial, note inDyelo
      NarodaNo. 48, for May 13, we read:

“‘Yedimistvo’s’political unity with the liberal
      bourgeoisieiscommon knowledge.”

“‘Yedimistvo’s’political unity with the liberal
      bourgeoisieiscommon knowledge.”

Markthat carefully! The “Socialist-Revolutionaries” and the
      Mensheviks are in unity with that veryYedinstvowhose
      political unity with the liberal bourgeoisie iscommon
      knowledge. Do not forget this, comrades, men and women
      workers, and soldiers!

TheMenshevikRabochaya Gazetafor April 20 (No. 35)
      wrote in an editorial:

“Weare against the British imperialists.Yendinistvois against the British socialists. Herein lies the whole
      difference. Herein lies the reason whyYedinstvohas to
      argue à la Hottentot....  The Russian workers remember only too
      well how Plekhanov, during the tsarist regime [there is a
      misprint in the text: it should read “during the tsarist
      republican regime”], tried in all manner of ways to dissuade
      them from going on strike. Then, too, Plekhanov tried to scare
      us with things even more terrible; ho tried to assure us that
      such conflicts only played into the hands of the German General
      Staff.”

“Weare against the British imperialists.Yendinistvois against the British socialists. Herein lies the whole
      difference. Herein lies the reason whyYedinstvohas to
      argue à la Hottentot....  The Russian workers remember only too
      well how Plekhanov, during the tsarist regime [there is a
      misprint in the text: it should read “during the tsarist
      republican regime”], tried in all manner of ways to dissuade
      them from going on strike. Then, too, Plekhanov tried to scare
      us with things even more terrible; ho tried to assure us that
      such conflicts only played into the hands of the German General
      Staff.”

Andin the issue of the same paper for May 16 (No. 57) the
      discreetly moderate ministerialist Cherovanin wrote:

“Plekhanovand hisYedinstvoare doing everything they
      possibly can here to compromise the principle of defencism,
      which has been compromised enough on an international scale
      thanks to the efforts of the majority of the German, French and
      other socialists.”

“Plekhanovand hisYedinstvoare doing everything they
      possibly can here to compromise the principle of defencism,
      which has been compromised enough on an international scale
      thanks to the efforts of the majority of the German, French and
      other socialists.”

Thisis howYedinstvois estimated by the Narodniks and
      the Mensheviks, this is how they try todissociate
      themselves from it, this is howashamed they are of
      it!

Neverthelessthey have entered into a bloc with it at the
      elections, and Plekhanov accepts seats from people who publicly
      call him names, such as“juggler”, “tamed socialist”,
      “Hottentot”, “compromised”, “in unity with the liberal
      bourgeoisie”.

Whichmember of that bloc is the worst?

Workersand soldiers! Not one vote to the bloc of the Narodniks
      and Mensheviks, who are shielding and working forYedinstvo, which is “in unity with the liberal
      bourgeoisie”!